Brave 7-year old Paige Morgan was diagnosed before she was born with a congenital heart defect and underwent open-heart surgery to survive.
The operation severed her natural pacemaker and now her heart won’t beat without the help of a battery.
“Most people will check their children once before going to bed, we probably check her a bit more often than we should do,” Paige’s dad told the Mirror. “As the years go on we have started to relax a little bit, but then the battery life starts to run down and you think, here we go.”
Miracle baby Paige was born to her parents though IVF after they tried for five years to conceive naturally.
When she was born her heart was the size of a thumbnail and surgeons and as her condition was diagnosed in the womb they whisked her away immediately to the hospital’s special car baby unit. A few weeks later when they were sure she was strong enough they operated on her.
“When they came back from surgery they said she was fine, but we knew something wasn't quite right,” dad Tony told the Mirror.
“The surgeon had a real disappointed look one his face, he said there had been a problem and as they had tried to repair her heart they had cut through her natural pacemaker, so she had had to have an artificial pacemaker fitted.
“The bottom of her heart can't communicate with the top of her heart so there is no natural pacing, and where she has been cut and repaired in the past the heartbeat is never going to find its way through the scar tissue.”
And according to her loving dad, despite the challenges she faces, determined Paige is living life to the full.
